Talon Audio
Peregrine
Floorstanding Speakers

Product Description

10" full range 2 way Monitor - The Peregrine represents Talon's effort to
create a full range loudspeaker at an affordable price. The Peregrine uses
the same 10" driver in the Khorus, a custom tweeter, and all high quality
components. Thus giving music lovers the first full range monitor to satisfy
all their listening needs and wants.

User Reviews

Overall Rating:

Value Rating:

Submitted by
Stephen Kenny
a AudioPhile

Date Reviewed: July 20, 2003

Bottom Line:

This review is for the Peregrine X.
This is not a speaker that is going to dazzle you the first time you hear it. None of the forwardness, brightness, Hi Fi or Gee Whiz factor of every other speaker you have heard is here. No COLOR, which will sound constricted and boring at first. Until you figure out what is going on.
And what is going on is that you are getting the purest, most honest presentation you will ever hear. Music music music. No speakers - amps - pre's cables or DAC's to think about. Just sweet beautiful liquid MUSIC.
From around 19hz, way up to the 20k's, nothing connects all the places in between with such cohesion and REFINEMENT. Images are nailed down - transparency is astonishing. Everything else you have heard, and believe me, I've heard then all, is a lie.
The last speaker you will ever need. Period.

After reading the other reviews there in not much more I can add. My wife and I love these speakers. Don't let the simple looks of these speakers fool you these are incredible. Listen to them before you buy.

timbre: 'the quality of a tone distinctive of a particular voice or musical instrument'

pitch: 'the property of a musical tone determined by the frequency of the sound waves producing it - highness or lowness

These two qualities are what help determine whether or not a speaker is doing its job correctly. If the music reproduced does not sound like the real instrument or voice or if the tones are not at the correct frequencies of the original voices or instruments, then the speaker is less than real. I believe we are trained by our equipment after years and years of listening to believe that what our particular equipment reproduces is correct - it becomes our reference. We respond to the equipment and chose to believe that the equipment we have delivers to us how music is 'supposed to sound'. What the Peregrines do is deliver the music much closer to the 'real' than you have previously heard. You become re-trained and come to realize that your previous reference had it only partly correct. It can be a painful, tedious, frustrating experience. First of all, it takes well over 500 hard hours to break this speaker in. After 800 hours, you get a real sense of what this speaker does. That is a lot of listening, trust me. It has taken me almost a full year. Most speakers don't deliver the body or weight real instruments and vocals possess. Most speakers get the bass or the high end ok, but only present a 'passable' presentation at the core of the music: the midrange. Music has guts, it has a middle, it has weight and body. This speaker forces you to re-learn and re-define how you listen to reproduced music. Given the full break in period, this speaker will change how you perceive reproduced music. It can truly be full range, detailed, musical, hypnotic, natural, powerful, delicate, deep, smooth and full. Real. You come away thinking, this is how music is 'supposed to sound'. It will probably be different than what you are used to, most likely it will be different. But the experience is imminently satisfying, ultimately. The music is 'proportionate', large, enormous, 3 dimensional, dynamic and it has real timbre and pitch. You don't need a subwoofer, you don't need to get exotic cabling. You need decent wire and equipment and you need patience and you need to be willing to re-learn what you think you already know. You need to be patient and willing to be re-trained. There is nothing quite like it, I assure you.

Simply excellent. The music flows naturally. I'm a detail freak, and after I got over the initial WOW factor in that area I was lost in the music that I have loved and listened to my whole life. I'm driving these with an Electrocompaniet EC 4.7 and AW250 DMB combo. Digital feed is a Wadia Model 8 transport recently upgraded and the Perpetual Technologies P1A/ P3A D/D-D/A rig with Modwright upgrades. Redbook has never sounded better in my system. A favorite cut for me is from The Beatles remastered "Yellow Submarine"- "Elenore Rigby" The strings are glorius. The cello's and double Basses dig deep and vibrant! Violins are sweet and filed with pathos that brings the message of this composition home to those with an ear to listen. McCartney's voice is front and center with an immediacy that gives goose bumps to all of the Beatlemaniacs that come to visit. Warmer than the Gershman's, but lacking the impact of the 802 N's-they nonetheless grab you and make you pay attention until you forget them and simply find yourself immersed in the music. I will add a subwoofer that will do these Peregrines justice and get that last stretch at the bottom they narrowly lack. When I find one that matches well, I will write back and let you all know the result and the model. Get them if you can. There are better sounding speakers for sure, but not at this price range or considerably above.

Please forgive me, dear reader, for shamelessly misusing this review space for the Talon Peregrine speakers to provide a review of the ALOIA 11.01 inductive preamplifier and the ALOIA 13.01 inductive amplifier. It appears that audioreview.com does not have the Aloia gear listed for reviews, but it is so good that I have resorted to this trickery to get some comments onto the site for interested readers. Anyone who searches for “Aloia” should find this review of them. The Peregrines are indeed relevant because they are the speakers through which I am listening to the Aloia amps, but see my review below for my opionions about these wonderful speakers.

I bought the Aloia amp and preamp with the inductive power supplies to drive my Talon Peregrines (see my review on this site). These amazing speakers are incredibly resolving and able to reveal the differences between electronics like you wouldn’t believe. Before I got the Aloias, I was driving them with an Audible Illusions Modulus 3A preamp and a Rowland Model 1 amp -- both of which are excellent pieces of equipment that have (or once had) Stereophile Class A ratings -- and the system sounded truly great. (The CD player is a Muse Model 9 Signature, which is also terrific.) I also briefly tried my Cary 2A3-based amp/preamp combination on the Peregrines, which sounded even better, except for not having enough ooomph at loud levels. But when I swapped in the Aloia gear, everything got MUCH purer, more trasnparent, and highly resolved without introducing any etch or glare whatsoever. The Aloia sound is very neutral and natural, not “sweet” or “liquid” like some tube gear, but just amazingly “right” in a fundamental way that serves the music extremely well.

The easiest difference to describe is that the dynamics increased dramatically. Lots more dynamic range, especially at the bottom end, all of it exceptionally clean and clear. The Peregrines are pretty efficient (90.5 dB sensitivity), and this 30 watt wonder can drive them without distortion as hard as they need to be driven for any music I’ve listened to. It also seems to have great bass control, although that’s a little hard for me to tell, because I have a powered subwoofer (a Talon Roc) handling the very lowest regions (15-40 Hz). It isn’t easy to describe some of the other differences in words, but they are easily audible through these speakers to anyone with an educated ear. The best I can do is say that with the Aloias in the system, the musical events I am hearing have became naturally “textured” in a way that they hadn’t been before and that this dimension adds significantly to the realism of the sound. Maybe this is part of what reviewers mean when they talk about “microdynamics.” It’s being able to hear Ella’s lipstick, the ridges on Michael Hedges’ fingers sliding over the strings, the low-level reflections of sounds off rear walls, and the extended decay of notes in a natural acoustic environment. They somehow manage to present staggering amonts of detail without ever calling attention to that detail. It’s just there, and it makes the recordings sound incredible natural and neutral.

But not bland! When the trumpets blare, their bite can make you jump in your seat, especially if you aren’t expecting it. But they don’t make you want to cover your ears or hope that it will be over soon. The sound is exciting simply because it is so real. And with imaging champs like the Talons, these electronics throw a soundstage like you wouldn’t believe: gigantic, articulated, and stable.

It isn’t easy to review equipment like this where I’ve never heard anything this good before; there’s no reference point “beyond” them on any dimension I can think of. They can’t be perfect, but I can’t say that I hear any significant flaws at all. They don’t have that “tube magic” in the midrange that the best SET amplification does, but to me these Aloias sound more natural and “right” than even the best low-powered tubes I’ve heard. (I admit to not having heard many of the big, powerful tube gear from Acoustic Research, VTL, etc., most of which is beyond my price range.) For me, the Aloia amp/preamp combination is a revelation.